PeruNorth's musings on events & destinations in Northern Peru, Amazonia ... and beyond. Detailed tour reviews.
Carnival - the exuberant celebration that precedes the Christian observance of Lent - is most closely associated with Brazil, and especially Rio de Janeiro with its famous Sambodromo floats and dancers. Nonetheless, there are carnival festivities throughout Latin America, with Peru being no exception.
Arguably the best-known in Peru is the Carnaval de Cajamarca, a vibrant and colorful festival celebrated in the city of Cajamarca.
Dance is a fundamental part of Peruvian cultural expression and identity, taking pre-Columbian traditions and combining them with later Hispanic and African influences.
If you are lucky enough to witness one of Peru’s many festivals, you are sure to see locals expressing themselves and their region through dance, just as they have for centuries.
Most visitors to Lima's Colonial Centre get a tantalizing glimpse of a district that starkly reflects Lima's contrasts. Visible just north of the Presidential Palace and San Francisco Monastery, across the natural boundary of early Colonial Lima, the Rimac River, is the district named after the river.
Being so close to Peru's post-Conquest heart, the area has a number of interesting and historic attractions, but it is also evidence of the rapid, chaotic, urban growth that characterizes much of Lima from the 1960s onwards.
